What if it all goes to balls?

When things go wrong, make like Buster Keaton and roll with it. It’s how you deal with things that matters.

One of those days where all your plans just go *pooooooft*

But I’m going to make like Buster Keaton and roll with it.

Buster Keaton is one of my all-time favourite actors, stuntmen, filmmakers, and acrobats. If you’ve never seen one of his films, shame on you. Rectify it immediately.

Even if you haven’t seen a Buster Keaton film, though, you’ll probably be familiar with thisparticular scene from the film Three Ages made in 1923. Buster puts a plank up between two tall buildings in a city, and uses it as a springboard to jump from one rooftop to another. It’s a massive leap, and he misses…

And falls several stories through those little sunshades you get over shopfronts. He shins down a drainpipe, drops through a window, slides through a hole in the floor, and ends up on a truck.

But here’s the thing…

He wasn’t supposed to fall.

He was supposed to make the jump.

Holy shitballs.

Keaton fell into a net and was injured pretty badly… but when he saw the action shot of him falling, he decided to keep it. And filmed the rest of the fall later to fit in.

His plans went wrong… and inspired him to do that scene differently instead.

He could have wailed and gnashed his teeth (he certainly smashed himself up a bit), but he didn’t.

He gathered himself, reassessed, and got on with it.

Sometimes, your plans are going to go all to balls. The question is, how will you deal with it? What will you do?

If your plans have all gone toes up, and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s what you do: sign up to my 49 Ideas email series.

It’ll give you a clear set of steps to follow to improve your marketing and your business.

Vicky Fraser is a copywriter, author, and entrepreneur. She really did run away with the circus… but when she’s not swinging from a trapeze, she’s showing other copywriters and small business owners how to work with better clients, make more money, and stop missing bathtimes, first words, and dinners with angry partners. In fact, she wrote the book on it. Get your copy here.

I've been implementing your advice into this business and we worked out yesterday that the mailshots we've been sending out over the last 5 months have brought us in over £70,000 in sales. And our winter events are completely full, in advance, for the first time ever.

We have no website, no Facebook, no presence online at all - we still don't have a company name ffs. So our only source of advertising is through direct mail. Its taken me literally seconds to process the orders of customers responding to our mailshots, and they probably took 30 mins each to write. And they cost nothing. Not a bad investment for £70,000 return.

Boom.

Abby

P.S. Because we're so ahead, we've started to sell our 2016 season already (normally we start in January), currently we've sold around 33% of the events next year. Great head start. And that's all down to direct mail. I'm actually scared for when we DO get a company name and website, we can barely keep up as it is!